Developing Creative/Critical Habits of Mind

The development of creative and critical thinking is "at-risk" during school years. Unless students develop habits of using their minds well in their learning, students are unlikely to develop these habits later in life. Despite this, classroom and test questions continue to challenge students almost exclusively on the superficial level of recognizing and recalling isolated bits of information. Teachers wait and give students an average of less that a second of thinking time after asking a question and after hearing a student answer.
As testing moves toward open-ended questions and, in some states, toward authentic problem-tasks, and as our students head into a future of increased change and unknown challenges, educational reform must shift the focus of learning to habits of mind associated with problem sensitivity and problem solving. The following sites reflect useful work and models for doing this.

THE BIG SIX: An Information Problem-Solving Process -- Mike Eisenberg's and Bob Berkowitz's influential view of thinking skills; needs tempering with his and others'
insight that these habits of mind are "recursive," that is they occur in
overlapping and "recycling" patterns